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Dallas police chief defends use of bomb robot

The police chief said he did not recall what exactly Johnson was singing but said the force was attempting to transcribe the audio of the conversation and would release it once it was done.

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Dallas police chief David Brown said all of his officers are on edge after the events, and his family has received death threats.

Washington-Dallas Police Chief David Brown defended his department usage of a bomb-carrying robot to kill the suspect in the shooting that took place Thursday evening.

“We don’t know how the bombing aspects of his plans were going to play out, ” Chief Brown added, saying he had a “large stockpile” of materials.

He added that using the robot to detonate the explosive device that killed Johnson was an idea put together in about 15 minutes.

“To me as someone who’s looked at the use of military technology and law enforcement technology, it’s yet another example of what is often called the “green to blue” pipeline”, says Farivar.

The robot was purchased in 2008 for $151,000, Brown said.

When his officers proposed using the robot, Brown said, “I approved it”.

Brown said investigators are still downloading more than 170 hours of body camera footage from officers and were collecting dashcam videos and video from surrounding businesses.

Johnson’s father, James Johnson, said in an interview posted on TheBlaze website Monday that he “didn’t see it coming”. The shooter wrote the letters “R-B” on the wall of the parking garage in his own blood where police later killed him.

Even as officials and activists condemned the shootings and mourned the slain officers in Dallas, hundreds of people were arrested on Saturday and Sunday as new protests against the use of deadly force by police flared in USA cities.

Brown suggested angry young black people in the United States join their local police departments and try to become “part of the solution”.

The fatal shooting of the five officers has not slowed the protests, and more demonstrations against police violence broke out in several USA cities on Saturday.

“We want to be supermen and superwomen and we are not”, he said.

“It is something that needs to be done in a very public way”, Bratton said on ABC’s “This Week” program.

Moving ahead of the demonstrators in a black Tahoe SUV, he stopped when he saw a chance to use “high ground” to target police, Brown said.

“This democracy requires their participation”, he said. “Serve your communities. Don’t be a part of the problem”.

“We’re hiring”, he told reporters Monday in response to a question about what advice he’d give young black men.

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“He was secreted behind a brick corner”, he said, “and the only way to get a sniper shot to end his trying to kill us would be to expose officers to grave danger”.

Micah Johnson served six years as a private in the Army Reserve force and was in Afghanistan from November 2013 to July 2014